Daniel Zender

MSU design graduate is going places

Daniel Zender completed a dual major in Graphic Design and Illustration at MSU, and he's not stopping there.

What are you doing these days?

-Juggling a lot of different projects and learning lots. 90% of my freelance illustration work comes from newspapers and magazines across the US, which is really exciting; every job has a different story and tone. I have been lucky enough to do work for the New York Times, the LA Times, Progressive, INC Magazine, and many others. I also try to keep focused on design, playing around with poster and layout design occasionally. In school I am learning how to tell stories with my art, which is also very exciting.

How did your education at MSU prepare you for the field you are in?:

It really whipped me into shape, in terms of efficiency and accuracy when it came down to conceptualizing and executing work. We often worked with strict but realistic deadlines, which are a major part of the professional world.

What was your favorite part about the Art + Design Department?:

Diversity. I feel so lucky that I received my education from a school that provides a wide variety of backgrounds and philosophy's in their faculty. It was so exciting in school, to be able to go from a skilled draughtsman's class to a master typographer directly after, and really start to pick up the relationship on all of these different formal elements and applications. It was so exciting. Experimenting and individuality were also encouraged, which may be sort of rare in the world of undergraduate studies.